Vulnerability In The Face Of Darkness: Romanie Insists 'It’s Not That Funny'

Romanie

Romanie is learning that she cannot always make her therapist laugh, no matter how much she wants to. 

This realisation – that sometimes, she has to let the walls topple, that sometimes, she can’t leave the house in clanking armour, and that sometimes, she can’t please everyone – is all over her upcoming album It’s Not That Funny.

Moving to Australia after having grown up in Belgium has taken Romanie on a rigorous and rewarding musical journey. 

Her debut album Are We There Yet? won her an adoring audience, as well as an Australian Music Prize nomination, the 2023 Upstart Award, and the triple j Unearthed x NIDA music video competition, and sold out shows across Australia, Europe, and the UK. 

She has shared the stage with Keli Holiday and Angus & Julia Stone, amongst others, and has worked with the likes of Adam Hyde and Armlock’s Hamish Mitchell.

Achieving all of the above has been no easy feat – and she is incredibly open and honest about the unrelenting toil that has gotten her here, including having to hold down six jobs to be able to afford to take her band on tour.

"I actually started a new one today," she says on a Zoom call, surrounded by potted plants. "They’re training me to be a barista." She holds up an example of her first ever latte art and giggles. "It looks so ugly!"

She describes It’s Not That Funny as "very different, more dark" in comparison to her first album. The deeply personal project was prompted by her experiences with anxiety and depression.

"I think it showcases this side of me that maybe I didn’t want to showcase all that much," she notes. "I very much wrote this album for myself. I never intended for anyone else to hear it, but then the songs started to form together when I played them to my band. 

"As much as it is about my inner demons, it is also a collaborative project, and about learning to let people in and being more hopeful."

The album is unleashed into the world on February 20th. Has there been a point in the lead-up to the release where she has gotten cold feet?

"Every day," she admits. "For the last two years, I have been tossing up the decision to quit music and walk away. Last week, I was like, 'I’ve had enough, I’m done, I’m walking away.'"

But Romanie happens to be one of those artists who simply can’t help but pursue music. 

"It’s my whole identity," she admits. "But I want to change my relationship to industry and how I sit in that space. I want to build community. With AI coming into the mix I think it’s important for everyone to be present, and I think I want to learn to be a musician who is more offline than online." 

Having to engage in the endless churn of algorithmic-focused content can be soul-crushing – and shouldn’t necessarily be what being a musician is about.

"To be frank, I don’t want to have anything to do with AI," she says firmly. "I just want to make it about being here, and being in the moment. I put out very vulnerable music, so at gigs I want people to be there and share a moment with each other."

The past two years for Romanie have been particularly sobering. "I’ve been grieving the fact that I’m probably never going to win a Grammy," she laughs. "I think two years ago if you’d ask me, I’d be like, 'Yeah, I’ll get there!'"

There is a mixture of grief and relief that comes with letting go of that ambition. "People are always saying as an artist you have to have thick skin, but there’s only so much you can take sometimes."

She sees music – for all the toll pursuing it has taken on her – as an "extension" of herself. "I am a chronic oversharer," she admits, "and I think that’s why I write the songs that I do write. 

"I am in therapy for anxiety and depression, and I am open about these things. But I think that I’m learning that I need to protect myself a little more, and I don’t think past Romanie would have done that. We’re learning to create healthy boundaries!"

It’s Not That Funny was "a hard album to write, a hard album to record, and now it’s a hard album to put it out." She is bracing herself for February 20th, but she is also proud.

And there is some solace in the fact that people find their own meanings in songs that are deeply personal. "The other day, I was working at the bar, and someone came up to me and was like, 'I love your music.'" 

This fan mentioned Romanie’s song Anthony and how she wanted to kill the "motherfucker" who had inspired it. "She totally thought that it was a break-up song. And I was like, 'Oh, that’s about my grandpa getting dementia.' It’s so nice that a song can have multiple meanings."

She enjoys the duality of a serious album that has a silly title, inspired by a conversation with her therapist. "In therapy, I was always joking about everything that had ever happened to me, playing things down, and trying to make my therapist like me," she says. 

"She sat me down at one point and said, ‘I cannot help you if you are going to joke about everything, you have to be real.’" 

Romanie’s journey in slowing down and being gentle with herself has been helped along by the fact that she finally became an Australian citizen in October. "It’s pretty crazy. It’s made me realise that I don't have to do everything all at once."

The area of Belgium she grew up in was quite conservative. "I never really felt like I belonged there. Then coming here, obviously we’re living on stolen land, and I’m very aware of taking up space. I don’t think I’ll ever know where I belong. I don’t know if I necessarily have to have it figured out." 

There are days when she wakes up and thinks of moving to Berlin or Barcelona on a whim. "But I’ve learned that I can’t always be running and moving around. I think, for now, I’ll just stay where I am."

Right now, she is grounded, but, importantly, she is also politically aware – a quality she sees as a no-brainer. "It’s our duty!" she asserts. "I feel like as soon as you have wealth, as soon as you have a voice, it is so important for you to speak up about things because minority groups don’t have a voice. 

"It’s our duty to help each other and care for each other and be kind and build community. That’s the only way I want to be."

Romanie is a special kind of artist who can acknowledge the hardships in her journey with music, while still being grateful for all that has come to her. She sighs, both tired and alive. "It’s a really magical thing, being on a stage."

Romanie leans on community, and creates community for others with her music. And onstage, she promises to always give it her all. "Because the songs are so personal, I want to make sure when I sing them that I still really, really mean them."

Romanie’s It’s Not That Funny is out now.

Romanie – 2026 Tour Dates

Friday, February 20th – TITLE Barangaroo, Eora/Sydney, NSW

Thursday, March 5th – Brunswick Music Festival, Naarm/Melbourne, VIC (Free Event)

Saturday, May 16th – Railway Hotel, Naarm/Melbourne, VIC

This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body